Home Theater: Hmm... Maybe Red?

I must have really intense A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder) genes in my blood.  (Hi Ma!)  I took one of those A.D.D. tests on-line, and my score was off the chart. I made myself feel better by subsequently taking an on-line IQ test for ha ha's, and was happy to yield a score of 131.  I don't know what that means, and I doubt the test is reliable, but I'll just be happy in my own little world believing I'm only 34 points south of  Einstein's estimated IQ. Lol!  Anyway, the point is, I was nearly done with the riser, I managed to stain the trim, hook up the outlet receptacles, and install the 3 step lights (which look really cool), and I was THIS CLOSE to being done, and I had a revelation: Is the color right?  I realized that the 'old room' was a beautiful 'Restoration Geen' like green color, (I think the actual color is 'Lakeside Cabin' from Benjamin Moore, in Latex Flat finish), but now that I have two rooms, I can't possibly have this awesome theater be the same color as the study can I?.. Did I really want to repaint this big room? All I had to do was to paint one stupid wall, and I could get back to watching movies in grand style with the fam. Crap... Off came the speakers, the glass speaker shelf, the cable brackets,  off came sconce lighting, and out came the red swatches.

I'm actually a half-way decent painter, but I have to confess I botched this up pretty good. I finally got it right, but only after I re-painted the room no less than SIX times... The first mistake, was that I figured since lots of kids were going to be in here, that I should paint the room with an eggshell finish, thinking the walls would be easier to clean. The rest of the house is flat finish, which looks gorgeous, but if you bump the wall with your hand, it will leave a mark. It's only now I realize that flat is king in any room, because even though it marks easily, you can spot roll it perfect with a 2" roller, and never see the repair job. Try that with eggshell... it ain't gonna happen. Anyway, not knowing that at the time, I went ahead with a Poppy red in eggshell finish, and after 2 coats (including re-cutting the edges), I had the 1st version of the red room to look at... and then I realized I'm an A-hole for not realizing that the eggshell would be too shiny to use in a screening room, since the huge screen would essentially reflect enough light to generate massive specular highlights on every wall. What an idiot, I'm actually in the film business for 17 years, one would think I would have avoided that little oversight.. DOH!..  So, okay, I figured one coat of flat to bring it back to what it needs to be... well, nope.  I picked up the next 2 cans of flat at a different Benjamin Moore store, and the guy told me I'd have no problems re-coating the flat in 1 step. Not only was the wall still shiny, but the wall was definitely not flat. Flatt-er maybe, but not like I wanted it. (dead-flat).  Now I had re-cut, and painted the room 3 times now, and it still wasn't right. Not only that, but I was also realizing that this Poppy red I was looking at for a month, is actually too bright overall. *sigh*... Okay, I'm comitted to getting this really right, and well, maybe I'm adding a little bit of extra sound-proofing with the now 1/8" extra layer of latex on all the walls.  I found a darker, less saturated red, which is actually a 'Pottery Barn Red' color that they carry, and ordered 3 cans in Ultra Regal Flat, which is the flattest thing they make, next to ceiling paint. This finally worked, after 2 full coats (with re-cutting all edges!) and a 3rd and final (make that 6th and final) roll over all the walls.  I finally had the red I was looking for.

Time to put the speaker shelf and speakers back up:

And I decided to put some shelves up to make good use of the little cavity left over from the jog in the wall which was bi-sected when the new wall went in:

The shelves were all painted white when I went around to re-do all the base trim.


Here's a shot of the now-working step lighting:

And finally the new carpeting!

I bought all of the basement carpeting from iCarpetTiles. The new carpet is a brown soft tile from the same company, but they apparently got an over-stock from the premier carpet tile company Flor.   This was a bit more expensive, but still cheap by flooring standards at $1.29 per square foot.  Flor would price this at anywhere from $6-$12 per square foot.


Next post:  Tying it all together